I very much enjoy the peace and serenity I feel while biking. On my rides, I switch from listening to and absorbing nature to listening to music, audiobooks, or podcasts. Many people who are currently homeless use bikes as their primary form of transportation, and aside from my love of biking, I feel it is crucial to document and highlight what relying on a bicycle as your primary form of transportation looks like. Before I plan the trip, I want to elaborate on the importance of going on a bike trip to raise awareness for homeless people. When a person is homeless, the primary mode of transportation they rely on is public transit. However, many cities and municipalities need reliable public transportation options. Once people who are homeless are on the street, this lack of transportation makes it even more difficult for them to find work due to the limited amount of places they can reasonably get to consistently. That leaves many people who are homeless to rely on bikes as their primary form of transportation. Bikes are beneficial, and if we designed more communities to be bike and walking-friendly, it would give more opportunities to people who can't afford cars to get around.
This brings me to my bike trip! I am very excited about this trip! As soon as I can finalize dates I will write another blog with updates. This trip will still allow me to visit and serve at homeless shelters in six of the ten cities with the largest population of homeless people in the United States. All six of these cities are in the same state, California. I will be biking from Sacramento to San Diego, stopping in Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, and Los Angeles. The trip will be 743 miles, according to Google Maps, and I should be able to accomplish it in 10 days, depending on the weather and serving opportunities at shelters in each city. This trip will allow me to meet and speak with as many of the 118,109 people experiencing homelessness who reside in those cities as possible. The purpose of the trip was always to document as many stories as possible and to generate interest in supporting people affected by homelessness.
After I founded Cherry Willow Apparel and volunteered at the shelter for some time, I was introduced to Invisible People. Invisible People was founded by Mark Horvath to "give a face and a voice to homelessness." Since consuming his content, I have been inspired to conduct similar interviews, which I am working on releasing. My idea to document the stories of people impacted by homelessness in my community and raise funds originally came from watching social media content. I saw content creators who would do acts of kindness for homeless people, which was great, but then the creator would benefit from all the engagement. I wanted to help the person whose story and emotion caused all the engagement. The person in need. This bike trip is about educating the masses on the realities many Americans face today. Showing people how easy it is to end up on the streets. Most importantly, raising funds to get as many people off of the streets and into housing as soon as possible.
Thank you for reading! Thank you for wanting to learn more about people experiencing homelessness and their stories!